Ohashi Kannon Temple

The Ohashi Kannon Temple: Kannon is a goddess with a pretty interesting history. My two favorite bits about her (oh, fine, the only bits I know): 1) She is a goddess of vegetarianism (among other things), so you can tell a Chinese restaurant is vegetarian when they use her image in their decor. Exciting if you want to avoid meat. Exciting if you want to avoid vegetarian restaurants. Exciting for everyone. 2) In the Edo period in Japan, Christianity was forbidden. Sooo because Kannon is often depicted with a child, Christians associated her with Mary and used her for secret-worship purposes. They would even hide crosses on the statues. Secret symbols on statues is something that should be making all the art historians in my audience go OOOOOO right now.